Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Democracy, Dictatorship... or Danocracy?

One of the most important actions of any successful dictatorship is to control the masses.

The easiest and best way to accomplish that task is to control the news media.

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Why did Saddam Hussein plaster giant pictures of himself around Iraq?

Why did Hitler* hold mass public cult like rallies with hundreds of thousands in attendance?

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Perhaps, for example, if you were leading the Canadian government you could simply refuse to talk to certain “unfriendly” reporters and, by using them as an example, force the rest to fall in line.

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It doesn't always take a political upheaval to turn a democracy into a dictatorship, sometimes all that's required are a series of small baby steps.

Funny: does anyone recall Myles Higgin's outrage at Danny's efforts, and those of his minions, shills, and intermediaries, to create his own cult of personality?

Has Myles Higgins ever waxed — well, eloquent is not the word — has he ever just plain waxed about Danny Williams Administration NewfoundlandLabrador's use or withholding of government advertising to reward or punish media outlets, depending?

Where was Myles when Danny refused to speak to Ryan Cleary and the Independent, or certain, insufficiently pliable journalists at one of the provincial daily papers? Or after Craig Westcott revealed his disturbing account of events on the Telegram's website?

Where has Myles been as VOCM, and, to a lesser degree, even the CBC phone-in shows and viewer response lines, have been turned into well-orchestrated two-hour hates against whatever Danny hates, or into well-scripted — literally, scripted — pro-Danny love-ins?